Observation of large in-plane anisotropic transport in van der Waals semiconductor Nb2SiTe4

Two-dimensional (2D) van der Waals material is a focus of research for its widespread application in optoelectronics, memories, and spintronics. The ternary compound Nb₂SiTe₄ is a van der Waals semiconductor with excellent air stability and small cleavage energy, which is suitable for preparing a few layers counterpart to explore novel properties. Here, properties of bulk Nb₂SiTe₄ with large in-plane electrical anisotropy are demonstrated. It is found that hole carriers dominate at a temperature above 45 K with a carrier active energy of 31.3 meV. The carrier mobility measured at 100 K is about 213 cm²·V^-1·s^-1 in bulk Nb₂SiTe₄, higher than the reported results. In a thin flake Nb₂SiTe₄, the resistivity ratio between the crystalline axes of a and b is reaching about 47.3 at 2.5 K, indicating that there exists a large anisotropic transport behavior in their basal plane. These novel transport properties provide accurate information for modulating or utilizing Nb₂SiTe₄ for electronic device applications.     

Liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry analysis of neonicotinoid pesticides and 6-chloronicotinic acid in environmental water with direct aqueous injection

An efficient, high throughput and cost-effective direct aqueous injection approach for the analysis of neonicotinoid pesticides and a common metabolite in environmental water has been described here. The method determines eight neonicotinoid pesticides (acetamiprid, clothianidin, dinotefuran, flonicamid, imidacloprid, nitenpyram, thiacloprid, thiamethoxam) and 6-chloronicotinic acid (a common metabolite of the first generation neonicotinoids, acetamiprid, imidacloprid, nitenpyram and thiacloprid) without any sample enrichment/cleanup steps. The method detection limits are 2–8 ng/L for the neonicotinoids and 93 ng/L for 6-chloronicotinic acid. The performance of the QTRAP^®5500 mass spectrometer was compared against a 4000QTRAP^®, and a QTRAP^®6500, to provide insights for future method transfer among different generations of instrumentations. Critical mass spectrometric parameters such as collision energy were quite consistent among the three instruments evaluated. However, increased chemical background levels for some target compounds on the more sensitive instruments were observed. The application of differential ion mobility spectrometry combined with tandem mass spectrometry was demonstrated to have great potential in reducing chemical background and/or isobaric interferences inherited in sample matrices. This ISO 17025 accredited method was employed to quantitate neonicotinoids in Ontario stream water samples. Good correlation for analytical results of this direct aqueous injection approach and a previously published solid phase extraction approach warrant high confidence in data quality.     

Chemical Aspects of Heavy Metal Solubility with Reference to Sewage Sludge Amended Soils

Abstract

The long term benefits of applications of sewage sludges to land as an alternative source for plant nutrients are frequently limited by potentially toxic contents of heavy metals. While upper limits for metal contents in amended soils have been defined in both North America and Europe, there has been little attention paid to the fate of the metals if soil management practices are changed and the solubility and hence the mobility of the metals increased. This study investigated the role of changes in pH and additions of chloride ions to the content of soluble Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Pb, Ni, V and Zn in soils to which sewage sludge had been applied. The contents of soluble metals ranged from less than 1 μmol L^?1 for V to 500 μmol L^?1 for Zn. For all the metals, contents were greater in the presence of Cl^? ions and increased markedly as the pH decreased below about pH 5. Contents of V, Cr, Cu and Pb increased at pH's above 7. As all metal contents were undersaturated with respect to hydroxide or carbonate precipitates, the changes in their contents were probably related to desorption from variable charge sites on mineral and/or humic surfaces.     

Chemical profiling and characterization of phenolic acids,flavonoids, terpene glycosides from Vangueria agrestis using ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography/ion mobility quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry and metabolomics approach

Vangueria agrestis is a shrub indigenous to tropical Africa, belonging to family Rubiaceae and is traditionally used as a decoction for treatment of fever, pain, and malaria. This study was undertaken to investigate the chemical constituents based on precursor exact mass and fragment ion information. The chemical profiling and structural characteristics of chemical constituents from methanolic extracts of dried aerial parts and roots of V. agrestis and dietary supplements were analyzed using ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography/ion mobility quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry coupled with UNIFI platform and multivariate analysis in both negative and positive ion modes. A non-targeted ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis was carried out to profile the chemical constituents of crude extracts of V. agrestis, and 73 compounds, including reference compounds, were identified. The fragments of flavonoids, monoterpene, and triterpene glycosides revealed the characteristic cleavage of glycosidic linkages, and the fragmentation pattern provided the identity of the sugars. This analytical method provides a quick method for quality assessment of dietary supplements. Finally, a chemometrics approach with multivariate statistical tools was used to visualize the differences between root and aerial parts of plant samples and to find the potential chemical markers that differentiate among these parts of V. agrestis samples and dietary supplements.     

Optoelectronic and charge transport properties of the complex of carbon nanotube with perylene bisimide

In the present study we carried out an investigation on the structure and properties of the complex formed by adsorbing perylene bisimide (PBI) on the surface of (6,6) carbon nanotube (CNT) by employing different dispersion-corrected density functionals (B97D, B3LYP-GD3, and ωB97XD), which showed the complex as stable. The contribution of various components of interaction energy follows the order: dispersion > electrostatic > induction. The lower ionization energy of CNT and the higher electron affinity of PBI revealed that they constitute a donor-acceptor system. Electron density distribution of the frontier molecular orbitals of complex confirmed the photoinduced charge transfer. The charge transport properties of the complex indicated higher hole mobility than electron mobility making it suitable to be used as p-type transistor. The absorption spectrum of the complex showed absorption in the near ultraviolet-visible-near infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum suggesting it useful for solar cells.     

Semi‐perfluoroalkylated perylene diimides for conjugated polymers with high molecular weight and high electron mobility

Perylene diimides (PDIs) and their derivatives are excellent semiconductors, while conjugated polymers based on PDIs have limited applications because of their low electron mobility (μ_e) derived from low molecular weight. The reported maximum number‐average molecular weight (M_n) of related polymers is only 21 kDa because PDIs have very poor solubility due to strong π–π stacking of their big planar conjugated cores. Herein, it is found that suitable semi‐perfluoroalkyl groups could enhance the solubility of PDIs significantly, and a series of semi‐perfluoroalkyl modified conjugated polymers with high molecular weight and electron mobility were synthesized. The maximum M_n reaches 94.8 kDa [P(4C_F8C_H‐PDI‐T2)_HW]. In their space‐charge‐limited current (SCLC) devices, all polymers exhibit typical characters of electron transporting semiconductors, and the highest μ_e is up to 8.40 × 10⁻³ cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ [P(4C_F8C_H‐PDI‐T2)_HW], which is similar as that of widely used electron transporting semiconductor PC₆₁BM (6.41 × 10⁻³ cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹). © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2018 , 56, 116–124     

Sound radiation of a functionally graded material cylindrical shell in water by mobility method

Based on the fundamental dynamic equations of functionally graded material (FGM) cylindrical shell, this paper investigates the sound radiation of vibrational FGM shell in water by mobility method. This model takes into account the exterior fluid loading due to the sound press radiated by the FGM shell. The FGM cylindrical shell was excited by a harmonic line radial force uniformly distributing along the generator. The FGM shell equations of motion, the Helmholtz equation in the exterior fluid medium and the continuity equation at fluid-shell interface are used in this vibroacoustic problem. The expressions of sound radiation efficiency and sound field of the FGM shell have been derived by mobility method. Radiation efficiency, modal mobility and the directivity pattern of the sound field are solved numerically. In particular, radiation efficiency and directivity pattern with various power law index are analyzed.     

Ion Mobility of Complexonates

Ion mobilities of silver, cobalt, zinc, gadolinium and europium and their complexonates with NTA, EDTA and DTPA are determined. It is shown that – contrary to the published data the ion mobility of complexonates does not depend on the mobility of the central cation; – complexonates with equal charges show similar mobilities, the deviation being not more than 15% of the average value; – a tendency for the ion mobility to decrease with increasing molecular weight of the complexonate is observed.